Referrals

Question

Hello I heard that campus candidates cannot get official referrals in BCG. Is that true? And how different are the campus candidates' process from graduating ones?

Answer 1

Whether it is officially true or not, you should network.

I know this for a fact.

At Stern, I ran a data analytics project to determine what factors affected successful recruiting (interview invites). The #1 controlable factor to improve your chances was networking.

Focus less on what they say, and more on what the data says:

Here's some more reading to help you during your recrutiing journey:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-get-a-consulting-internship-tips-and-tricks

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/application-tracker

Answer 2

The referral process differs a lot from office to office and role to role.

But most importantly, don't accept everything you hear.

If I were you, I'd network despite this. You can still get a lot from networking beyond referrals, such as:

a better understanding of the industry
a better understanding of your target firm and role
whether or not they're hiring at the moment in your target office
how to best prepare for the interview process
a potential casing partner (or a consultant who offers to do a practice case with you to help you out with some feedback)

In you're in the networking throes now, you might find the following two resources useful:

Best,
Cristian

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Answer 3

Hello,

I don't think this is the case, but it's best to check with your on-campus recruiting representative to be sure.

Not fully sure what you mean by campus candidates vs graduating candidates - I assume you are talking about schools with on-campus recruiting vs schools without? The former have a huge advantage in that there are recruiters tasked with hiring from your campus specifically, which substantially increases the likelihood of your application getting looked at thoroughly, and your likelihood of advancing to interview. Referrals can still be helpful beyond that, however.